No thanks? What Dodds, UT will miss

Published 11:29 pm, Saturday, November 17, 2012

DeLoss Dodds oversees a money-making empire, if not a championship one. But that doesn't make him Jerry Jones.

For example, there's no DeLoss World.

But the University of Texas athletic director also isn't Jones for another reason. Jones, even with an ego as massive as his stadium, would never have rejected historical, emotional, box-office gold because of pride.

Dodds has, and this season, he missed something special to sell.

Neither the Longhorns nor the Aggies show much concern about a century-old tradition that won't take place this week. The Longhorns have recovered from their embarrassment to Oklahoma, and the Aggies are basking in a new world shinier than the old one.

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The Aggies aren't missing a quarterback who was taken eighth overall in the NFL draft, and they certainly aren't missing Texas. All perspective was officially reset after a trip to Tuscaloosa.

So both sides will enjoy Thanksgiving week without the other, and the only ones with regret seem to be those who thought the rivalry actually meant something. Red McCombs speaks for them as well as anyone.

“This game belongs to the people of Texas,” he said recently, “not to the two schools. It's not right they aren't playing.”

McCombs said he considers Dodds the best athletic director in the country. “We all make mistakes, and I think I made one in 1962,” he joked. “But egos got involved. DeLoss got hardheaded on this one.”

McCombs thinks the game will return eventually. Maybe neither school wants to admit it misses the other for now, he said, “but wait a few years.”

As for the game that will be played in Austin this Thanksgiving: “No disrespect to TCU, but that's not the game.”

Maybe Mack Brown doesn't mind the change for now. Again, no disrespect to TCU, but chasing Johnny Football is a tougher chore.

And maybe UT's economics are fine no matter.

Dodds and Texas have made a lot of money. With revenue from the Longhorn Network, they will make more.

Still, there are disadvantages to the current situation, and one is about what the rivalry has meant to both programs. Sometimes Thanksgiving week was about remaking a season, and Texas could benefit from that now.

What if the Longhorns upset the team that upset Alabama? The Longhorns' win a year ago in College Station came with similar satisfaction.

But this goes deeper. Compared to A&M's schedule, UT's lineup this season looks closer to the old SWC. While the Aggies didn't have much to sell Saturday, with Sam Houston State in town, they've already hosted Florida and LSU. With Alabama and others coming in the future, there's a lot to market.

Ask any recruit in 2014: Which Thanksgiving week game will seem more appealing nationally, TCU-Texas or LSU-A&M?

The size of the stage matters, and the Cowboys have always gotten that. Years ago, when the NFL went through realignment, Tex Schramm made sure the Cowboys stayed with the large-market teams in the east for that very reason. Schramm wanted to go big, not local.

Jones continues to benefit from that, and this Thanksgiving gives him even more when the Redskins come to Arlington. Robert Griffin III's return to Texas is a natural attraction.

That's how even an ordinary team can profit, and it's something Jones and his former NFL ally, McCombs, understand. A sporting event, above all else, is entertainment.

Dodds, instead, sniffed when the Aggies left the Big 12. And if Texas doesn't feel that yet, and if both schools are content without the other this Thanksgiving week, then remember what McCombs said.